The Energy of the Personal Blog

“The drama of the essay is the way the public life intersects with my personal and private life. It’s in that intersection that I find the energy of the essay.” ~ Richard Rodriguez

Transparency in a Personal Blog

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Personal blogs are well, personal by nature. While that may seem redundant, without this connection to our topics or themes, our writing can ring false for a reader. I have recently gotten emails and comments that touched me. Several other writers have said that they wished their writing was as transparent as mine regarding my thoughts and feelings. Those comments made me think about why sharing my thoughts and feelings in posts seems like a natural way for me to write, and I’ve come to the conclusion that my recovery has a lot to do with this attitude of openness.

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Recovery is one of my themes, and invariably, I will include a life lesson for the reader. In our recovery work, we become conditioned to discuss our thoughts and feelings, as well as our actions. I think this attitude of disclosure carries over into my writing at Two Drops of Ink as well.

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I’ll Tell You Mine If You Tell Me Yours

One of the emails reminded me of my first attempt at personal writing when I was in treatment.We had to write the three most embarrassing and painful events from our lives and then tell it to a stranger. In 12-Step recovery, this is a 5th Step, “Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.”

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We had a choice about who would hear our 5th Step – a counselor, a priest or a rabbi. Not trusting a counselor’s confidentiality, I asked for the priest. Since I am not Catholic, and he was booked for the next month, I could not use the priest. I then asked about the Rabbi, assuming he must have some confidentiality restrictions like a priest. However, the same problem, I’m not Jewish, and he was booked.

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That left the lonely third choice counselor. I wrote about my most shaming experiences, pouring my heart into this writing. It was painful and distressing to see what I had done, written in black and white. I cried and sobbed, wracked with guilt, however, I finished it.

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When I showed up for my appointment, I was ready to read my admissions. Armed with my Kleenex, I immediately started crying. The counselor looked at me, eyes glazing over, stifling a yawn and then succumbing to the sheer boredom of my disclosure; he looked at his watch. When I was finished, the box of Kleenex was almost depleted.

My counselor launched into his own three similar experiences and asked me if I felt better. I told him that while I intellectually understood what he was doing, I did not feel better as he had minimized the pain that my admission still caused me. However, I began to see that there really was nothing new under the sun. The actions wore my face one time and his on another occasion.

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That moment of clarity was the beginning of what I now understand is the cathartic benefit of sharing personal reflections, experiences, feelings and thoughts.

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Regardless of where we live, what language we speak, or whether we are male or female, our experiences, feelings, and thoughts are universal. When we write from our personal experiences about any topic, we can help readers understand an issue, find solace in commonality, or we can offer them solutions to their problems in personal blogs. While we write from our perspective, we have to make sure that we are giving the readers what they need in our personal blog. That means that writing from two perspectives:

What the writer wants to say

What the readers want and need

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Information for the Writer

Personal blogs give writers an opportunity to be a storyteller, teacher or enchanter. Each of us has personal strengths, values, beliefs, hard-won lessons, and life experiences that can help someone else:

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Create changes to improve life

Deal with a disappointment

Discover their hidden talents

Find joy in simple pleasures

Make a difficult choice

Overcome a fear

Prevail over hardships

Travel to other places like a pro

Triumph over adversity

Weather a stormy time in their lives

For this type of writing, you cannot rely on intellect alone. For instance, I could write about the thrill of driving a Grand Prix race car; thinking that my experience with traffic tickets qualifies me as an expert on fast driving. Wrong. I only drove 50 in a 35, hardly race car stats. Yes, I could fabricate a blog post, but it would not ring true to most readers. So, what are the necessary features and heart of a personal blog?

Challenges

Compassion

Exposure and Disclosure

Feelings

Insights

Relevant Personal Experience

Solutions

Thoughts

People feel isolated sometimes, wondering if their lives, thoughts, and feelings have meaning. As a writer, you can validate another person simply by using your talents to tell a universal story. It is as though you have reached out and in that moment, the reader knows they are not unique or different; it is as if a comforting friend has told them, “I’ve been there.”

Feelings and Thoughts are Different

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Personal blogs convey the drama, conflict, joy, passion, remorse, and wonderment through the feelings and thoughts of the writer. That means that you will have to expose your thoughts and feelings. It’s important that you distinguish your thoughts, attitudes, and feelings.

It’s more than just putting the word, feel in your sentence, also. For instance, you could use any of the following phrases, but what follows is not usually a feeling, it’s generally a thought, idea or assumption.

“Feel like …”

“Feel as if …”

“Feel as though…”

Feelings fall into five general categories, each with degrees of the feeling:

Mad

Sad

Glad

Bad (Jealous, envious, guilty, etc.)

Scared

Because personal blogs need to capture your readers and create a story which they can relate to, using the most dramatic degree of the five general categories, is the better approach. Do not tell them you have a good marriage, vacation spot, hobby, or passion in life. That is just annoying. Tell them how delightful, enjoyable, pleasant, charming, amusing, enchanting, and wonderful this experience was.

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What the Reader Wants

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In an 800-1500 word post, you only have time to tell an example story, so make it worth your reader’s time. Lost a loved one unexpectedly; then give them the shock, fear, and loss so that they can relate. Did you make transformational changes in your life? Then what you did and how you benefited from it will have universal appeal.

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Your “Aha moment” when reality or the truth became apparent; write it so I see the wheels and gears turning in your head and I will empathize with that.

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As I said at the beginning of this article, I am comfortable with this style of writing. I get decent pageviews from my posts and am pleased with comments. However, I realize that descriptive writing or personal blogs may seem too exposed to some writers.

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I also know from the comments and emails that many of you would like to try to write in this style; however, you are hesitant to jump into the deep end. Use some of these topics to ease into personal blogs and see how you like it.

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A place that is special to you and why

A book, movie or play that changed your life and how

The proudest moment of your life and why

What superpower would you like to have and why

Your most prized gift and why

What country would you like to live in and why

What was the funniest experience you had and why

What do your grandkids, children, or co-workers know about you that is interesting and why?

“A writer, or any man, must believe that whatever happens to him is an instrument; everything has been given for an end.

This is even stronger in the case of the artist. Everything that happens, including humiliations, embarrassments, misfortunes, all has been given like clay, like material for one’s art. One must accept it.” ~Jorge Luis Borges

Challenge

Building upon the quote from Jorge Luis Borges, I would challenge you today to look around for your personal clay.

Just as the potters starts with a lump of clay and one makes a bowl, another makes an entirely different piece.

It’s the same with our writing. If you’re struggling with ideas for your personal blog, ask yourself these questions and see if you don’t find answers that make your blog personal to you.

What can you write about that will touch another?

What long lost memory will you stir in another?

Will your images make a reader smile, cry, reflect, or remember?

Will your words help someone change their lives?

Will your words generate joy, hope, courage, or resolve?

Each of these is a potential outcome of writing a personal blog and I would encourage you to try writing in this style. And when you’re finished? Two Drops of Ink is always looking for well-written posts that show others how to write better, a gripping memoir or an image prompted post.

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Two Drops of Ink: The Literary Home for Collaborative Writing

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We realize that not all readers relate to every writer, so our collaborative approach means that your distinct voice is missing. Ready to try a guest post?

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You’ll get exposure for your writing, and we’ll get the energy of your words.

Published by Marilyn L. Davis

Marilyn is a recovering addict with 29 years in abstinence-based recovery. She opened and ran an award winning women's recovery home from 1990-2011. Closing the house gave her time to write for a larger audience at From Addict 2 Advocate, where she is the Editor-in-Chief.
She is also the Assistant Editor at Two Drops of Ink, encouraging other writers to share their creativity and talents. She believes in the power of words and knows that how something is said is just as important as what is said.
She is a charter member of the Cult of the Paper, which just means that she's been reading for a long time. Also, she is not embarrassed to profess her love of words, wit, and wonder.
Her writing at Two Drops of Ink tends to be encouraging, full of alliterations, humor and as one fan put it, "Generous advice and common sense."
She is also the author of Therapeutic Integrated Educational Recovery System (TIERS). She is the recipient of the Liberty Bell Award, given to non-attorneys and judges for their work within the Criminal Justice Systems and in 2008, Brenau University created the Marilyn Davis Community Service Learning Award, given to advocates in wellness, mental health and recovery.
View all posts by Marilyn L. Davis

10 comments

Marilyn, this is EXACTLY how I want to write! Thank you so much for posting. This is very encouraging and thought-provoking. I’m just starting out with blogging, and I want to help people. I love writing and I’ve been looking for an outlet.

Hi, Michelle. Go for it. Write your truths. Say what you need to say. We all just sometimes need permission to be ourselves, and if this post did that for you, then I did my part. I genuinely want to encourage other writers.

Marilyn – This is another post that I will be adding to my digital file of writing helps. The file is growing larger and most of the saved links are yours – so I may have to change the file name to “Marilyn’s Posts.” 😊
This is an issue I am struggling with as I write memoir pieces. While sharing transparently and from the heart one on one comes pretty naturally to me, I find myself wondering just how transparent I want to be in writing for public eyes and struggling with all of the issues that come with that. I have posed this question to myself and asked it also of writers in one of the writer’s groups we mutually belong to.
I am also working on a post on transparency – since writing helps me work out what I am thinking (and feeling), and this is such an important question to ponder.
Since “following” you I have learned much, particularly about Memoir writing, and I am so grateful for your virtual mentorship through your posts on the writing craft! Thank you!

Hi, Terry. Wow, thanks. I think that the vulnerability we feel when discussing thoughts and feelings is natural. However, I do qualify what I write about my addiction for a post at Two Drops of Ink versus what I might disclose on my other blog, From Addict 2 Advocate. Eventually, if we keep trying to improve our writing, I think (or at least hope) that we find balance in either the examples we share or the depths of our thoughts and feelings. It’s like everything else, finding what works for us as the writer, and receiving feedback from readers that help us know if we’re on the right track.

Marilyn you have a way of prompting me to ask myself questions about my writing in a way that is important but not intimidating. Does what I am writing about resonate with my heart or am I just trying to satisfy some internal writing quota of mine? We don’t have to be experts in any one area, and we all have extremely valuable lessons to share and I think that it’s one of our jobs as members of a writing community to remind ourselves of that fact. Another thorough and well-done piece Marilyn!

Hi, Donnie. Thank you for the kind words. I like your questions, too. If it doesn’t resonate with me, I re-read it and too often see that it’s flat and lacking the underlying passion that I think is critical to authentic writing. Even if I’m only interested in one facet of the topic, I have to find enthusiasm somewhere for me to be satisfied with the end result.

Personal bias on my part, I’m sure. But sometimes I’ll read a post and think, “Were they writing on auto-pilot” as it lacks a seeming connection between the writer and the words. What’s unfortunate, is, like you mentioned, some just seem to write to fulfill a quota of words – internal or external.

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